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US Senator Elizabeth Warren said Sunday that Massachusetts elected officials critical of President-elect Trump cannot afford to remain silent over his threat to conduct mass deportations and other proposed policies, despite concerns that the incoming administration could retaliate against the state.
Elected officials must speak up when they have concerns about Trump and his policies, Warren said during an interview on WCVB-TV’s “On The Record” program. She also touched on President Joe Biden’s pardon for his son and whether Boston City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson should resign in the wake of her arrest Friday.
She made these comments as some local officials have expressed anxiety that Massachusetts could see far less federal assistance than under past administrations, with Trump returning to the White House next month and Republican majorities to take over in both chambers of Congress. Massachusetts was one of the few states where a majority of voters didn’t support Trump’s re-election in November, and many local politicians publicly supported his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris.
“We cannot start out by rolling over and playing dead in the hopes that if we do that, Donald Trump and his team will leave us alone,” said Warren. “Look, our job is to speak up.”
Warren signaled there is concern the incoming Trump administration will try to claw back federal funds allocated to replacing the Sagamore bridge on Cape Cod. Officials are trying to ensure the money is secure before Trump returns to office, according to Warren.
“With any other administration on God’s green earth, of course it would be guaranteed. It’s already been allocated and so on. What we are working feverishly to do is to literally lock the doors and windows so there is no way to pull that money,” Warren said.
The state had been working to obtain federal funding to help replace the Bourne bridge, but Warren did not sound optimistic about securing those funds.
“That’s going to be harder right now,” Warren said.
Trump has also pledged to deport millions of people across the country and has been rebuked by many of the state’s elected leaders including Warren, Governor Maura Healey, and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu.
Healey and Wu have said State Police and Boston police would not assist in mass deportations, while Boston and several other communities have declared themselves sanctuaries for undocumented people residing in those places.
In the interview Sunday, Warren pushed back when WCVB reporter Sharman Sacchetti asked Warren whether she was concerned that those statements put “Massachusetts in the crosshairs” of the incoming Trump White House.
“It is a question that reflects [that] reality, but that is a reality we cannot give into,” Warren said. “It is a reality that says, ‘You want me to start censoring myself on everything I say, if I think the Trump administration is wrong?’ We can’t do that.”
As an example, Warren reiterated her criticism of Trump’s choice for secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, an Army National Guard major and combat veteran, who has faced allegations of excessive drinking and sexual assault. Hegseth, who is also a former Fox News host, has been criticized for saying women “straight up” should not serve in combat roles.
“Do you think I shouldn’t speak out on Hegseth just because Donald Trump nominated him?” Warren said.
Warren did not call for the resignation of Boston City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson, who was arrested and charged Friday in federal court after prosecutors said she took $7,000 as part of a kickback scheme.
Those allegations against Anderson undermine public confidence in elected officials, said Warren, who expressed uncertainty that she could continue as a city councilor.
“It certainly casts a pall, and it certainly raises a question of whether she can effectively do her job,” Warren said.
Warren said she opposed Biden’s pardon of his son, Hunter Biden. She did support a blanket pardon for Justice department officials who investigated Trump, including ones who looked into his role in the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the US Capitol.
“When Donald Trump has openly said that he intends to use the FBI and the Justice Department, to attack his political enemies who were just doing their jobs in the Justice Department and trying to enforce the law, that’s a time when blanket pardon should be on the table,” Warren said.
Material from prior Globe coverage and the Associated Press was used in this report.
John Hilliard can be reached at john.hilliard@globe.com.
Local News
New Hampshire is leading an effort from 25 states to challenge a Massachusetts gun law, and this month, they’re taking it to the Supreme Court.
The centerpiece of the argument is the Pheasant Lane Mall in Nashua, N.H., which reaches across state lines into Tyngsborough. If shoppers park on the south side of the mall’s parking lot, they might end up crossing state lines during a visit.
The attorneys general of New Hampshire and 24 other Republican-led states say this poses a potential problem for firearm holders. A New Hampshire resident who is legally carrying a firearm on their home state’s side of the parking lot may inadvertently be breaking the law when they cross the lot into Massachusetts, where it is illegal to carry without a permit.
Joining New Hampshire are the attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming, who are calling the arrangement unconstitutional. The states have rallied behind Phillip Marquis of Rochester, N.H., to ask the Supreme Court to protect out-of-state residents from Massachusetts’ firearms regulations.
“The geography of the mall is such that a New Hampshire resident might find themselves in Massachusetts if she parks on the south side of the parking lot or visits Buffalo Wild Wings,” reads a brief from the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office to the Supreme Court. “If that person is carrying a firearm without a Massachusetts license — which would be constitutionally protected activity in most of the mall—that person risks being charged as a felon and facing mandatory incarceration in Massachusetts.”
The trouble began for Marquis in 2022 when he was in a car accident in Massachusetts, according to the brief. When police arrived, he informed them that he had a pistol on him and was subsequently charged with carrying a firearm without a license.
Marquis previously sued the Commonwealth for the burdens that Massachusetts’ firearms permit law creates on out-of-state visitors, but the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court denied his claims. They ruled in March that the state’s nonresident firearms licensing laws were constitutional, according to court documents.
Claiming that the Massachusetts court denied him his Second and Fourteenth Amendment rights, Marquis has petitioned the Supreme Court to federally overrule that court’s decision. In his petition, Marquis invoked New York State Rifle & Police Association, Inc. v. Bruen, where the court established that state firearms restrictions must be covered by the Second Amendment or adhere to historical firearms regulations.
Using Bruen, Marquis and the Republican attorneys general supporting him are aiming to prove that there is no justification for applying Massachusetts’ firearms restrictions to out-of-state residents and that to do so would be unconstitutional. However, the state’s Supreme Judicial Court found the law constitutional even under Bruen because it intends to prevent dangerous people from obtaining firearms, just as historical regulations have done.
“To the extent that the Commonwealth restricts the ability of law-abiding citizens to carry firearms within its borders, the justification for so doing is credible, individualized evidence that the person in question would pose a danger if armed,” the Supreme Judicial Court’s decision read. “Both case law and the historical record unequivocally indicate that this justification is consistent with ‘the Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.’”
It’s not immediately clear if the Supreme Court will respond to Marquis’ appeal or when it will make any kind of decision, but lower courts are at something of a crossroads with how and when to apply Bruen to gun possession cases. As such, they are looking to the Supreme Court for a more definitive answer.
Since the proof of historical context that Bruen requires has led to some uncertainty, any ruling that these lower courts make is likely to amount to a partisan decision. However, if the Supreme Court provides more substantive clarity in a response to Marquis, these lower courts just might find the answer they are seeking.
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Massachusetts State Lottery players won two $100,000 prizes Friday from the day’s “Mass Cash” drawings.
The winning tickets were sold at the Roslindale Food Mart on Washington Street and McSheffrey’s of the South End convenience store (with Mobil gas) on Main Street in Woburn.
Mass Cash drawings happen twice daily, at 2 p.m. and at 9 p.m. It costs just $1 to play.
Overall, at least 625 prizes worth $600 or more were won or claimed in Massachusetts on Monday, including 6 in Springfield, 22 in Worcester and 14 in Boston.
The Massachusetts State Lottery releases a full list of winning tickets every day. The list only includes winning tickets worth more than $600.
The two largest lottery prizes won so far in 2025 were each worth $15 million. One of the prizes was from a winning “Diamond Deluxe” scratch ticket sold in Holyoke, and the other was from a “300X” scratch ticket sold on Cape Cod.
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